RR Recommended: David Abraham’s Favourite Designer Stores Worldwide

In the dynamic line-up for Robb Report India's Art Circle this month is designer David Abraham. A graduate of the National Institute of Design, Abraham brings more than three decades of experience dedicated to reinterpreting Indian textiles and craft traditions through a contemporary design lens. Over the years, his work has earned international acclaim, with one of his creations entering the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

In a conversation with Robb Report India, the celebrated designer offered a glimpse into the spaces that continue to inspire his eye for craftsmanship and design. He shared five of his favourite designer stores at the moment, each reflecting a distinct philosophy of aesthetics, materiality, and making. Here is his curated selection.

Abraham's first pick was Nappa Dori, the Delhi-founded leather goods label started by Gautam Sinha, praised for its "terrific store concept" and the way it has expanded into food alongside product. That instinct has only grown: the brand's flagship Warehouse in Chhattarpur, New Delhi, was built inside a former derelict mill, reimagined with industrial trusses, raw walls, and hand-painted signage, blending an atelier, a library, and Cafe Dori — its own pan-European café — into one. Nappa Dori now runs flagship stores in London and Dubai alongside twelve other stores across India, spanning Delhi, Gurgaon, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Indore, plus a design studio in Delhi for bespoke orders.

Abraham calls this his favourite international pick for consistently spotlighting designers who "don't need to be commercially successful" — the antithesis of retail sameness. Founded by Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons, the London flagship in St James's spans five floors and mixes established names like Balenciaga, Prada, and Dries van Noten with emerging designers, alongside its in-house restaurant, Rose Bakery. The brand now has locations in London, New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Beijing, and Los Angeles, with the LA outpost in the Arts District marking its sixth global store.

Abraham singled out this label's Lodhi Colony opening as a standout new store, one that "really reflected the ethos of the brand." Founded by Shani Himanshu and Mia Morikawa, the brand recently made this instinct permanent: its new Lodhi Colony flagship in Delhi was conceived as a guided journey through the brand's universe rather than a conventional retail layout, built in close collaboration with architects, product designers, exhibition designers, and lighting designers, with a Made-to-Measure room at the end designed for conversation rather than just sales. The brand centres its work on natural indigo dyeing — its Okhla store has a vat of indigo that customers can dip cloth into, alongside 30 more terracotta vats at its Delhi workshop that ferment 5,000 litres of dye at a time. It also had an unexpected pop-culture moment: Brad Pitt wore an 11.11 indigo-dyed, handspun kala cotton shirt in the film F1, made using a 700-year-old Gujarati weaving technique.

For perfume, Abraham points to Le Labo, praising how the brand's stores manage to "capture the essence of the brand" rather than just sell products — citing Beijing as a highlight. Le Labo, now owned by Estée Lauder, opened its first mainland China store in Shanghai's Xintiandi neighbourhood inside a former Shikumen heritage building, complete with a vegan bakery and café. The brand has since gone further into Beijing: its second Beijing location, the Heyuan Fragrance Lab, is set inside a historic Siheyuan courtyard mansion, guiding visitors through themed rooms inspired by Chinese apothecaries, a home-fragrance lounge, and a body-care sampling room, culminating in a traditional courtyard garden. That courtyard space once belonged to Prince Pujun, cousin of China's last emperor, Puyi.

Abraham's fifth and most local pick: Dastkar's Nature Bazaar, which he calls "so inspiring" for its array of grassroots artisans and craftspeople. It remains an active fixture on Delhi's cultural calendar: Nature Bazaar at Andheria Modh is a joint initiative between Dastkar, a leading Indian craft NGO, and Delhi Tourism, running monthly themed events with around 100 stalls that rotate with the seasons, showcasing handloom weaves, embroidery, block prints, and traditions like bidri and dhokra metalwork alongside tribal Gond and Madhubani folk art. Nine themed events were scheduled for the 2025–26 season, running from August 2025 to April 2026, including a Festival of Light in October, the Great Handloom Bazaar in November, and a Winter Mela in December.

Abraham also mentioned The Conran Shop as an old favourite from his travels, though he wasn't sure if it was "alive or dead" in some markets — a fair question given its recent history. The Conran Shop closed its French operations in 2023 after 31 years on Paris's Rue du Bac, citing a declining retail climate, though the company said it would concentrate on other regions. In London, the brand opened a major new flagship on Chelsea's Sloane Square in 2023, designed to "look like a home," while its long-running Marylebone store remains open too. The same year, it also opened new stores in Kuwait and an additional location in Japan — so while its footprint has shifted, the brand is still very much alive, just in fewer places than before.